Tapered
by OveliaGirlHaditRight
Summary: Reupload of an old fic of mine (that I wrote soon after KHIII came out), where Sora and Kairi get a moment together before the gathering of the Seven Lights and he gets to see her new look.


**Tapered**

**Sora's PoV**

Sora had just gotten his new ensemble from Master Yen Sid, and had been out the door when he'd realized he still needed to ask about the Mark of Mastery.

So back up the countless steps and into the familiar room again, he went.

…Sora didn't want to push Master Yen Sid on the subject—since he kind of figured the man didn't like him that much—but the truth was, that Sora was having a hard time lately. And he thought maybe if he achieved the Mark, he might feel a bit better.

So Sora was going to go and ask Master Yen Sid about this by himself—because he didn't want Donald and Goofy to know their ribbing was getting to him—but what Sora got instead of that wasn't something he'd been expecting at all.

Kairi was here! Which usually would have been enough to alight his face and make him happy...

But right now, the Keyblade wielder was much more embarrassed than anything.

Kairi, for whatever reason, was shirtless.

And Sora didn't even realize this at first: her skin had grown paler lately, so he had thought she was just wearing her white tank top again.

Or that he was maybe having some vision of her when she'd been fourteen: it wouldn't have been the first time.

But then Sora noticed her hair wasn't exactly the same as her pre-teen's self.

And her breasts—that were still covered by her bra, even now—were too big for them to have been her past self's.

Realization hit Sora like a bullet train, and he turned away from Kairi stammering apologies and covering his eyes.

"Kairi, I'm so sorry! I didn't even know you were _here_!"

The Kairi Sora knew definitely would have been yelling at him for this—and he wouldn't have blamed her for that in the slightest—but surprisingly, this one just turned away from him even further, and quickly put her dress on if the sound of shuffling fabric was anything to go by.

"...It's okay, Sora. It wasn't your fault. But it's all good, and we can talk now. Master Yen Sid had wanted to see this mark on my collarbone, to see if I'm a girl named Ava... But unfortunately, it was down so low, I had to remove my top for him to see it. He was letting me change back in peace when you came... And now I'll go back to training."

Deeming it was probably safe to look at Kairi now, Sora about faced but still kept his fingers over his open eyes. Just in case.

But seeing that she _was_back to normal now, he removed his hand, breathed a sigh of relief, and opted to return to the status quo and pretend the former had never happened.

"So are you 'Ava', then? And about this training... Are you really sure about it, Kai?"

Sora didn't want to poo-poo her idea, but the fact Kairi seemed to be doing this for just Riku and him was worrisome. And that she'd never summoned her Keyblade at The Castle That Never Was… and had only ever been handed it, before Riku took it away again.

But at the same time, Sora trusted Kairi with his whole heart. And if she thought this was for the best, then he would believe her.

Kairi shook her head—seemingly at the Ava thing—and Sora couldn't help but to breathe a sigh of relief to that: He didn't want to lose Kairi to another life, after all: As selfish as that might have been for him to admit.

Though Sora did see that she didn't remark on the Ava matter at all… which was peculiar, and instead talked about the fighting issue. Again.

"I'd be lying if I said I had all the answers, Sora." And here Kairi seemed to pull on her necklace some, which made Sora remember how he had seen that at the forefront when he'd run to Kairi at the End of the World.

"But even though I'm doing this so I don't have to be left behind again... I do want to do my part to help my fellow princesses, and whatnot, so I _do_think this is right, Sora."

That was all he'd needed to hear... for the most part:

Even if the idea of Kairi getting slaughtered in the upcoming War kept playing like a bad dream in Sora's head.

But he would try to stay positive for her sake—because Sora knew Kairi had always been capable of miracles, and he tried to show that now.

"That's a good call, Kairi… And one you should have always been allowed to make. And I'm glad you are finally standing on your own now."

And speaking of her confidence, that they said clothes could help with, it took Sora this long, to realize that Kairi was wearing a completely different outfit!

It was a baby pink, compared to the salmon she'd worn recently, Sora thought… If he was getting his colors right.

And he spied the white tank top with the pink stripe on it: Kairi was being true to Naminé through and through, with the white on her outfit. And some other way that he'd notice in a moment.

And was that ears he spotted on the back of her hoodie?! And shorts and boots under her skirt, to help her in combat?

And could it have been, that he was spying Kairi checking out his new look too?!

Err… He'd try to unpack that in a moment, if it came down to it. But needing Kairi to know just how amazing she looked, Sora took her arm gently in his hands and whispered a quick, "You look cute, Kairi."

And before he could stop himself, he also ran a hand through her short hair that he'd just now noticed.

"And this cut is the best. I've always admired you with short hair… you always seem so spunky and resolved that way."

Sora had kind of expected that before, with how willing she'd been to let Roxas and Naminé see each other through them… but did this mean she felt the same way about their Nobodies as he did, then?

So often, did Kairi seem to be on the same wavelength as Sora: Like when they'd both wanted to save Ansem the Wise.

They had a bond here… and maybe if they put words to it, there'd be power there.

And despite the bashful boy he always was when feelings got brought up, Sora was just about to try it.

But all too soon, the moment was over: Like they always seemed to be for them.

Kairi, looking regretful, started to be summoned back to Merlin's for more training.

And she began spinning around in the air the way the gummi ship had under Merlin's control before.

After a quick, shocked wave on her part, she was gone.

And not wanting to get caught thinking things about liking someone by Yen Sid, he thundered back down the stairs before the Master could get there.

Sora was back on the ship—listening to Donald's reprimands and Goofy's concerns—and tried to convince himself that nothing had happened.

But it had.

Even more than seeing her half-naked for a second... or even more than her looking more like the Kairi he fell in love with again...

Sora couldn't get the thought of Kairi's new look out of his head, and how it made him feel.

To be able to rock a design by each of the Three Good Fairies' in one, Kairi must have been the perfect specimen indeed, Sora thought with a blush.

…How he couldn't wait to see her again: When they could maybe spar, save the world together… and perhaps be even more.

And perhaps it was the knowledge that she had a tapered skirt for Naminé that made him love her more than anything… in the same light, that Sora wore black for Roxas.

**Author's Note: So, the beginning part with Kairi isn't fanservice. I swear. It's because I was inspired by an idea sunflowerb had for a fanfiction one time (that instead became a BbS fic of hers), where Sora, Riku, and Kairi were all Keyblade apprentices together and Sora accidentally came in on Kairi changing one day.**

**And also because I wrote this right after KHIII came out, and when I was kind of irritated on how I thought they'd changed Kairi's character there (though now I can excuse things away, and think that they really didn't). So letting her look like her KHI self again for a moment (sort of), allowed me to get into that mindset for KHI Kairi again in a KHIII fic.**


End file.
